Six current and former students from the University are set to compete in Paris 2024 which gets underway on Friday 26 July in swimming, athletics, boxing and wheelchair basketball.
Jade O’Dowda, who is studying for a Master’s in international relations and global crises, will compete in the heptathlon at Paris 2024 for Team GB.
Jade won bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth games and finished seventh in this year’s European Championships in Rome. She also won the long jump at the recent UK Athletics Championships.
Fellow heptathlete Kate O’Connor was selected to represent Team Ireland at the Games. Kate graduated from Sheffield Hallam in 2022 with a degree in sport development with coaching. She won silver in the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Lewis Richardson, who graduated from Sheffield Hallam in 2023 with a Master’s in sport business management, will represent GB Boxing in the light middleweight category. Lewis previously won a silver medal at the 2022 European Championships.
Swimmers Max and Joe Litchfield, who both studied at Sheffield Hallam, will be competing for GB Swimming.
Max, who studied physiotherapy at Hallam, is competing at his third Olympics after taking part in both Rio and the Tokyo Games. Max finished fourth in his first Olympic final in Rio in the 400m individual medley.
Brother Joe is competing in his second Olympics after taking part in the Tokyo Games. He is the current British Champion in the 100m butterfly.
Sheffield Hallam also has a trio of graduates competing for the GB men's hockey team in Paris - Phil Roper, Gareth Furlong and David Goodfield.
Lucy Robinson will compete for ParalympicsGB in wheelchair basketball. She graduated in 2021 with a degree in primary education.
The Paralympics will take place from Wednesday 28 August and Sunday 8 September.
Kate Cox, Head of Sport Services at Sheffield Hallam, said: “Congratulations to all of our current and former Sheffield Hallam students selected to compete at the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.
“Supporting students to balance their academic aspirations with their elite sporting endeavours is so important to us and I'm delighted our Performance Athlete Support Programme is in place to do that.
“We'd like to wish them all the very best of luck, we hope you have an incredible experience, and the Sport Hallam Team will be cheering you all the way.”
Some of the students were supported through the Performance Athlete Support Programme (PASP) during their time at Sheffield Hallam which helps talented athletes to balance university life while achieving their sporting potential.
